Kitsap Business and Economy

By Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
A Bainbridge Island company has received a $350 million federal stimulus grant to go toward building an environmentally clean coal-fired power plant in Texas.
Summit Texas Clean Energy LLC has helped to develop technology that would capture 90 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by the plant, then compress and drill the waste far down into the earth.
The plant would also use gasification technologies to achieve expectations for environmental cleanliness.
It would be the first of its kind.
“This is not a science experiment. This is a commercial plant,” said Eric Redman, president of Summit Power Group of Bainbridge Island, parent of Summit Texas Clean Energy.
The plant would cost $1.7 billion and be capable of producing as much as 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power up to 400,000 homes.
Some of the electricity would be used to run the plant, which would be located in West Texas near Odessa. The rest would be delivered to residents at no higher cost than other sources.
The Bainbridge company was one of three that together received nearly $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate development of coal technologies with carbon capture.
“This investment is part of our commitment to advancing carbon capture and storage technologies to the point that widespread, affordable deployment can begin in eight to 10 years,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said earlier this month in a statement announcing the awards.
Other recipients includes American Electric Power Co. Inc. of Ohio and Southern Company Services Inc. of Alabama, both of which will develop systems to capture 90 percent of carbon dioxide at existing plants.
Summit Power Group employs about 40 people at its Bainbridge Island office on Winslow Way. The consulting company used to be in Poulsbo before moving to Bainbridge. Its chief financial officer, Eric Gjelde, lives on Bainbridge.
Besides developing clean technology for coal-fire plants, Summit has developed high-efficiency natural gas and wind projects.
Summit Power Group is chaired by Don Hodel, former secretary of the U.S. departments of the Interior and Energy under President Ronald Reagan.
Construction of the Texas project would start in a year, said former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, a spokeswoman for Summit.
Redman said he credits the Washington congressional delegation for the big award.
He hopes there will be similar coal-fired plants to come, each an improvement over the one before it.
“Obviously, we hope that it’s the first of many,” he said.

For More Information
To learn more about the Texas project, visit www.texascleanenergyproject.com. To learn more about Summit Power Group, visit www.summitpower.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 9:39 am by Rachel Pritchett and is filed under Uncatagorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.